Review of the Ultimate Rogue Raiding Guide

PvE Rogues is a relatively new blog, having been around for barely two years, but it has quickly established itself as probably the top rogue resource blog that is to be currently found on the net. Whereas you go to shadowpanther for detailed stats, and elitist jerks for dedicated number crunching, PvE Rogues is all about getting you the information in a straightforward style. Garona is the main driving force behind the site, and she contacted me to review her new rogue ebook, ‘The Ultimate Rogue Raiding Guide’. I asked her if she knew what she was getting into, but she courageously, (or foolishly depending on your point of view), told me that she wanted an honest review.

The guide is a 44 page ebook which sets out in detail what is required to effectively play an end-game raiding rogue. Topics covered include; talent builds, rotations, poisons, gear, stats, gems, glyphs, the list goes on and on. It’s nicely set up and very easy to read, and there are links to online resources throughout. The only minor quibble that I have is that profession bonus enchants are covered in a separate section to best professions for rogues. It would probably be better to put these together, particularly as the target audience for this ebook will mostly be for new rogues, so you don’t want to confuse the precious little buggers.

Now I know that any of this information can be found on the web for free, but if you have actually tried doing that then you know that it can be a little frustrating at times to get the information that you require. For example, you might want to know which are the current best poisons for a combat rogue. I did a search to see how easy it is to find out this information using google, and quite simply it’s not easy at all. You get a lot of redundant and confusing information. This ebook nicely bundles everything together and as far as I know all future updates are included in the price, which is available at $1.99 at present as an introductory offer. You also get a whole bunch of other stuff for those 2 bucks, but sadly no coffee mug.

If you’ve just hit level 85 on a rogue for the first time and you want to raid then this guide will be invaluable. If you’re a raid leader or a guild leader who has rogues who are sub-standard but want to improve, then you would do well to steer them towards this book. It sure beats the hell out of answering a litany of questions every time you go online, and makes the player take responsibility for their own performance. In fact, if I were still a rogue class officer I would just make rogues who wanted to raid buy this or leave me alone. Job satisfaction for the winner. But to be honest, even as an experienced rogue I got something out of reading this, even if it was something as simple as what the end-game raiding enchants are now. Sure, I could find that information out for when I finally get my gaming rig back and start playing again, but this way is much simpler, easier, and cheaper, as in time costs money. And if the information turns out to be out of date then you can just blame Garona, which is always much more deeply satisfying than taking responsibility for your own mistakes.

If you’re so eager to rail on him for what appears to be trying to help, go spend the whopping 2$, read the guide, and come back here and tell us how terrible it is. You get to spend the price of a cup of coffee to stand up on your soapbox, loud and proud, and rail on Adam for selling out.

Several people posting that the guide is shit vs a blogger reviewing it and saying it is good damages the reputations of both the guide and Adam. This shit about “Oh man, you sold out!” for the time spent reading 44 pages (considering how much time most of us spend reading on the internet every day) is spam at best, if not outright idiotic.

Dunwich and Nicola, are you guys serious? Do you really think that I would sell out for a $1.99 rogue raiding guide? I mean, if it was a Paladin guide then maybe, but how many people actually play a rogue? I can’t see Garona making much moolah out of this. And the fact of the matter is that she has put a great deal of time and effort into a very good guide that a lot of rogues that I have seen would do well to read.

I’m a little surprised at the reaction to your review of the book it didn’t even cross my mind that you were “selling out”.

I shan’t be buying the book and that’s nothing to do with your review but rather that I don’t think I’m going to find a lot of new information for me. That doesn’t make it a bad book or not worthwhile for players not as familiar with the class.

The fascinating thing for me is Garona’s pricing model. $2? That’s a negligible amount. I wasn’t going to buy the book because, hey, Elitist Jerks does fine, but for $2? Paypal, meet Garona, thank you. I’m betting I’m not the only one with that reaction.

She’s done a lot of work on the book, the information appears to be valid , accurate and complete, and the book looks damn pretty.
I’m hoping her pricing strategy pays off, because she’s done a good piece of work here.

I’m sorry, but the tone of the article makes it appear, at least to me, like many other guide plugs that bloggers have done in the past. It seems rehearsed and not honest at all. Sorry.

As for the guide itself, no class in this game is so hard to understand and master that you would need to pay for a guide. All the information is readily available and findable within seconds of opening your browser as long as you have the skill and the mindset to look properly. If you don’t, well then, no guide will help you, free or otherwise.

First of all a big thanks to Adam for posting this blog review, it was very kind of him and since he isnt getting anything out of it, it was a very nice thing to do off his own back.

second of all as adam clearly states at the beginning of this, i asked for a 100% honest review. If some readers dont believe that then that’s your own trust issues and not adams fault😛

thirdly about the price, it was basically set up to cover a) the competition that is running with it and b) some of the time spent writing it when i could be earning money instead (im a home based freelancer) and c) fund the hosting and domain costs of the blog. it was not desigend to profit in any way, just to help people at a very affordable rate to give everyone a good chance at it if they so chose to.

Nikola: im very sorry to hear that the rogue community supporting each other and being nice to each other is upsetting for you. Whatever you decide on this subject, do not take it out on Adam who is only doing me a favour and being nice by giving an honest review of my product on his blog which as i mentioned above, he gets nothing for doing and hes got no reason at all to fudge his review. To be perfectly honest I expected something more brutal myself even, I’m not heartless co-orporation, im just a rogue trying to fund my little corner of the web and help people at the same time.

Heck, for $2 I’m willing to give Garona’s new eBook a shot. Her website is great and just to have all that info in one place is well worth it to me. Plus, I don’t mind offering my little support to a blogger who has contributed so much to the Rogue community.

I run a podcast called the Warcraft Lounge, and I know Adam reviews such podcasts so I contacted him early on to ask him to take a look at it and possibly give us a review

We were just getting off the ground (and I was feeling very ambitious) but he got back to me and said he wanted to give us some more time to get into a groove, as he called it. On top of that (and he didn’t have to but did) he gave us excellent feedback on how to make it better, linked to us one day (and we did get a spike in listeners, btw) all for the tidy sum of zero dollars, and zero cents.

People flip the fuck out when someone tries to sell something they put time and effort into on the internet. Why is it the internet must be free, but everything else is allowed to cost money? People have no problem with a sportswriter making money, a novelist making money or movie stars playing pretend for $20 mil a movie, but when some poor schlub sits down, organizes all the information scattered across the internet, puts it in a thoughtful format, and wants to get paid 8 quarters for their time and effort, look out world! Grab the pitchfork and torches, we have to get our lynch mob on. How dare they?

I know how much it takes to register a domain, secure hosting, and the sheer amount of time adn effort it takes to put a podcast together, and we aren’t getting paid shit for it. However, my cohost and I have financial analyst backgrounds, and later on this year we will be releasing Excel gold making spreadsheets and yes, those will be for paying customers. Why?

A) College loans are a bitch. B) Hosting costs money. C) Our expertise is worth something. Not many people have a Bachelor’s in Finance and play Warcraft. D) Because the podcast will remain free, while adding some extra content to support our costs.

I know why I do my podcast: I wanted a podcast exactly like the one we do and since nobody else was doing it…well fuck it, we filled the void. Nobody is buying an Italian sportscar or a 10-bedroom house from doing a warcraft blog, podcast, or whatever. Most of the time, the mind behind the content just likes doing it, and if we want to break even or make money on the side, that’s our business and you should be totally neutral about it because nobody is putting a gun to your head and making you buy it.

I digress. Adam was on the level with us from the get-go, we never asked (or he never implied) that a favorable review could be secured with any amount of financing or flattery (and if you have read his angry podcast reviews, they are positively withering) and the fuss about his review or implied endorsement of something he liked is mystifying at best, and annoying at worst.

Personally, I would’ve told the haters to go fuck themselves. Instead, he has been remarkably restrained and thoughtful in his reponses, making him a better person than me, I suppose.

That’s just my two cents, I could be mistaken. Oh did I say two cents? I meant free. It is the internet, after all.

It was thanks to the review here I started following the warcraft lounge. My fav pod cast by the way and a real goldmine. Pretty tempted to go buy the rogue guide, I am sure I can steal alot of ideas for my enhance shaman. My rogue… well I am not a good rogue. Lets leave it there.